Water coming thru cement in back corner when rains heavily.

[Coyle]

It's in the back corner of my mom's house, the neighbors that have moved in had to add fill dirt (she's only 15' above sea level) plus some other things. Am trying to figure out a fix for this. She's had people try, they put tar down but it didn't help. It's unincorporated so county doesn't maintain the ditches much, am wondering if there's a way to put in a drain bed out to the ditch, ideally with a small pump inside that'd come on when water levels rise? Unfortunately her electrical and phone lines are underground across the back or I'd think of renting a bobcat and just removing dirt, angling it downward towards back yard. Any ideas here?

 

[Stanley services]

It sounds to me like it will be too difficult to resolve the source of the water ingress. It also sound like the moisture is rising through the base of your mums wall. This is rising damp. The only solution is to get the walls injected with silicon to create a damp proof course. Once this relatively cheap work is achieved. Buy a second hand dehumidifier to draw the residual moisture from above the newly injected damp proof course. Job done. No more wet wall

 

[Coyle]

It's actual water coming in, like enough to suck up with a shot vac. There's standing water now around that area when it rains heavily and there's no real drainage to speak of. I'd say it's coming in where the cinder blocks meet the cement floor; from my experience most buildings water will come thru there if it gets high enough, unless it's been treated, I remember reading there's a product they put down usually during construction that seals that area, wouldn't help her situation now as she's let people put tar--which did stop it for awhile. Even where I live once I left my hose spraying some grass seed where the spray hit that bottom portion of my wall and water came thru, same happened to a neighbor when sprinkler blew and hit that area, and another a town away when he had that hurricane a few years back the water built up in her front yard then as the storm passed it blew it all against the wall and water came thru that entire side. Before new neighbors built up their yards with fill dirt, and my mom's yard used to slope down in the back, like we just put fill dirt in the front to raise up there, well over the years she filled in that back yard so now the water has nowhere to go. One thing, before we bought that land, there was a long ditch/trench going all the way down but she filled that in; all over down here in FL you see these trenches to drain the land, and retention ponds when it's done right. She is only 2 blocks from the water so in theory the ditches should drain out there, but over the years the ditches have eroded. I've seen a nice dehumidifier with a pump hose for $300 but she's old and difficult.

 

[Stanley services]

I understand more now, thanks. Have you considered tanking the wall with sand and cement over the block work? If this is done during dry weather that will stick like sh*t to the outside whilst waterproofing it. Then you can dehumidify from the inside. If you can’t afford one, a weekly hire cost is very cheap.

 

[Coyle]

Think that will work better than the tar? She can afford the dehumidifier, just hard explaining things to her; she thinks it'd just release the water right back outside, but can attach a long hose to it so it'd be away from there.
Do you mean like digging down to bottom of foundation then troweling the sand/cement to seal in-between there? I had a friend with a ferro cement sailboat that ran aground with a hole in it; he used what he called pool epoxy and sand and it sealed the hole.

 

[Stanley services]

Sounds like a a good idea. I still would get the wall/s injected with silicone to create the damp proof course before placing sand and cement on the affected external part of the wall. You can find you tube videos which will show you how to do this your self. If you want to go the whole way, there are plastic membranes which can go behind the sand and cement render, however this is expensive. In relation to the dehumidifier, it will have the be situated after the remedial works mentioned above, right next to the internal part of the wall which remains damp, until it’s water tank eventually runs dry after many times of emptying. The door/s to the room will always have to be shit whist you are drying the walls out with this method to avoid the dehumidifier drawing moisture from any where else in the property also. Very best of luck

 

[Stanley services]

Sorry, I forgot to mention, the tar will always eventually fail on a damp wall. It’s only a temporary fix.

 

[Coyle]

Ok, I have a better understanding now of what to do. I think my friend with the ferro-cement sailboat used something like this and while the boat was aground at the time, it did seal a good sized hole that was underwater afterwards, so am optimistic that it'll stick and stay sealed.
Thanks for the help, it's much appreciated.

 

[Coyle]

Sorry, I forgot to mention, the tar will always eventually fail on a damp wall. It’s only a temporary fix.
[/QUOTE

Do you think this could be done from the inside, say going around the interior where foundation meets wall to seal it that way? She just told me the water has started coming in on the other side as well; if I could slather that epoxy/sand mix to seal where it joins would be easier than doing it outside; or do you even think that spray foam might seal it?

 

[Stanley services]

Yes that could be an option to tank the wall from the inside with sand and cement. I don’t think spray foam would cut it.

 

[Coyle]

Sorry for the late reply; until this recent hurricane I could not convince her to do anything about it, and it didn't come in much until now but she's finally receptive to getting some stuff done.
I understand what you were saying about injecting the silicone first and running the dehumidifier so everything's dry before applying the cement/sand mixture, and do you think using the concrete epoxy/sand mix would be best or would just regular cement & sand (the epoxy is $100 gallon so if regular cement works just as well big price savings.) this is the kind of epoxy: Poxofill Epoxy Concrete Patch Putty - Gallon - Olympic - 962-G – Poolweb

 

[AC Power]

I have seen this over-and-over. I am not a believer in expending any efforts to make an "inverted swimming pool" out of a basement, and that's what happens when attempts are made to seal the foundation walls (interior or exterior) with rubber, tar, impervious paper, etc....

Now, as Stanley services said, it does not seem it's an option to grade your land so as to avoid water approaching the home's foundation. Too, if your only 10-12' above sea level, you inherently could have a high water table. Think about it, the ocean is only 6-8' below your basement floor!

I believe this is your only option:

You NEED a sump pump in the basement. This is easier, I think, than you might be suspecting. If you want me to draw this out for you, I will. I'll go on the other machine, and draw an elevation of the project, and then you could "see" the situation with your home. I would also explain what you need to do to procure it.

Best Regards,

 

[Coyle]

I have seen this over-and-over. I am not a believer in expending any efforts to make an "inverted swimming pool" out of a basement, and that's what happens when attempts are made to seal the foundation walls (interior or exterior) with rubber, tar, impervious paper, etc....

Now, as Stanley services said, it does not seem it's an option to grade your land so as to avoid water approaching the home's foundation. Too, if your only 10-12' above sea level, you inherently could have a high water table. Think about it, the ocean is only 6-8' below your basement floor!

I believe this is your only option:

You NEED a sump pump in the basement. This is easier, I think, than you might be suspecting. If you want me to draw this out for you, I will. I'll go on the other machine, and draw an elevation of the project, and then you could "see" the situation with your home. I would also explain what you need to do to procure it.

Best Regards,

No basement, just a concrete slab at ground level with cinder block walls. This is a common building method down here and if standing water gets too high or is blowing towards wall where floor meets wall water can enter. I've seen it happen to many places. So my mother's bedroom is at ground level, and standing water will come in--often just on the outer corner but it has entered on the inner corner as well. These hurricanes often occur when the summer rains have already saturated the ground so that's when it usually happens.

 

[AC Power]

Oh, my bad.....I should have realized in FL there are no basements.

Well, I can't imagine why a sump wouldn't help anyways. As as with a basement, you basically get water under the whole homes slab (floor), and when it no longer has a place to go, it start pushing up. This is TOTALLY true for a basement as well. Water naturally wants to sink into the dirt beneath, in other works, sink due to gravity. Actually, years ago, we had massive amounts of rain, and this was happening to a neighbor where she stored her hobby things on the basement floor, and she was freaking out! In an all out emergency, I opened the concrete floor in a utility area. There was water all through-out the hole....like I said there is/was water UNDER the house's floor. I dug out a muddy/mucky hole deep enough to fit a 5 gallon bucket in it. Put the bucket in, and placed a submersible pump inside the bucket. It started pumping the water down a garden hose that was routed to the outside roadway. THE INCOMING WATER STOPPED COMING INTO THE HOUSE.

In any case, if you'd like me to draw this up for you, you could try it.

 

[Coyle]

I understand what you're saying, but the pump would have to stay outside as my mother is elderly and I don't live close enough to do it. I had a bilge pump in my sailboat, they make pumps like that pretty large and come on automatically when water level gets high enough; in an outdoor application keeping silt etc out would be the main issue; otherwise it should work.